Reply to Middle and high school on Capitol Hill

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Middle and high school on Capitol Hill"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Glad you're happy with Washington Latin, but Boston Latin it isn't. I'm a difficult person to vilify for my snobbery, racism and elitism being brown, having been born in a housing project, and having attended an Ivy League school on a Pell Grant. But go for it if you it makes you feel better.  If your kid was in a position to take advantage of excellent, unlimited free tutoring at city "exam school" test prep centers like Bostonian youth can, would they be worse off?  If not, maybe think twice about championing a system actively shortchanging the city's best and brightest in the public school system.  At a recent Washington Latin open house, I wasn't remotely impressed to learn that 6th graders reading at a 3rd grade level are shoved into the very same English classes as those reading at the high school level. Same for math and other subjects. My children are not instructional tools DC public schools can harness to raise standards for the poorly prepped and/or none too academic. Pass.[/quote]

We have similar backgrounds and I am also unimpressed with Latin. My test in ultra academic high school saved my life. I'm happy to give you examples of real racism.  Test-in magnet schools are not.

I just wish I could explain how it changed my life and that of my family as well. My sisters went to community college when they saw me go to my top school. They have careers now. God knows where they would be. If I was bored in my terrible inbounds school, I can't help but think I'd still be there. [/quote]

Boston Latin pp here. I find that most of the DC parents and charter admins who are most staunchly anti test-in MS programs are whites who grew up in leafy suburbs. They aren't in favor of these programs because they don't have experience with them being lifesavers for poor minority students. They say, well, our program really doesn't have many students who are behind academically, so we don't need merit-based academic tracking.  From where I sit, the experience of having been part of entire classes of nose-to the-grindstone, academically advanced students for six straight years (7th-12th grades) made all the difference in my life. It put me on a path to an Ivy League school, and a top law school. Several elementary school classmates I remember as being bright and motivated are in prison, for life, for murder.  The main difference between us?  They didn't spend evenings at the city exam school test prep center working with tutors in 6th grade like I did.  It was too late for them - by that stage, they were already more interested in hanging out by the corner store, in watching TV, and in playing video games.  DC could do much better by its brightest and most disciplined kids of all backgrounds.
[/quote]

I'm not totally against a test-in MS program, but this doesn't solve the problem.  But there is plenty of evidence from across the country that unless well designed, gifted/test-in programs end up becoming disproportionately white.  Also there are many advanced students who won't test in (like the PP who thinks her child working 2 grade levels ahead is so incredibly gifted as to be a shoe-in -- sorry, I think it takes more than that.)  And we already know that there are charters that are challenging, such as BASIS and DC Prep, where you'd get the "nose to the grindstone" atmosphere you're looking for.  But without improving/investing in neighborhood middle schools, there are going to be a lot of DC students who don't get that magic ticket to BASIS or the test-in program.  [/quote]

I'd like to see that evidence to support your claim "But there is plenty of evidence from across the country that unless well designed, gifted/test-in programs end up becoming disproportionately white."

I don't have data myself but from anecdotal things like class pictures and DCUM discussions of magnets around here, I'm expecting that it's more a case of some groups to be less represented than they are in the general population (probably AA and Latino ) and other groups filling that gap -- and Asian (South + East) probably has a higher slice of what's left versus white than they do in the general population. So I'm not ready to accept your claim at this point without more to back it up.

Looks to me like "well designed" and "disproportionately" in your statement are filled with innuendo 
 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics